The 2026/27 season will commence soon and almost all of the players who will compete on the World Snooker Tour this term are now known.
Q School and Asia-Oceania Q School concluded recently, adding a fresh batch of players to the professional ranks ahead of the new campaign.
There will be a total of 128 professional players on the World Snooker Tour for the 2026/27 season, with only the winner of the African Snooker Championship yet to be determined.
The tour has therefore almost completely taken shape before what promises to be another hectic and trophy-laden period for the sport.
When is the first event of the 2026/27 snooker season?
The ranking event version of Championship League Snooker (June 22 to July 15) will once again provide the first opportunity to win silverware during the new term.
The behind-closed-doors event in Leicester has generally provided the launchpad for new seasons over the course of the last several years.
Before that, however, several players will be involved in qualifying with the preliminary rounds for the China Open and the Wuhan Open running from June 10 to 18 at the Mattioli Arena.
The opening weeks of the season are set to feature plenty of action on the baize, with established stars, returning professionals, and tour rookies all eager to make a strong start.
Here is a rundown of the players who you will be able to follow on the World Snooker Tour during the 2026/27 season.
2026/27 professional snooker players
Top 64 from the rankings
- Judd Trump (England)
- Neil Robertson (Australia)
- Zhao Xintong (China)
- Wu Yize (China)
- John Higgins (Scotland)
- Shaun Murphy (England)
- Mark Williams (Wales)
- Kyren Wilson (England)
- Mark Selby (England)
- Barry Hawkins (England)
- Xiao Guodong (China)
- Mark Allen (Northern Ireland)
- Chris Wakelin (England)
- Ronnie O’Sullivan (England)
- Ding Junhui (China)
- Si Jiahui (China)
- Jack Lisowski (England)
- Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (Thailand)
- Elliot Slessor (England)
- Zhang Anda (China)
- Stuart Bingham (England)
- Ali Carter (England)
- Zhou Yuelong (China)
- Gary Wilson (England)
- Pang Junxu (China)
- Lei Peifan (China)
- Joe O’Connor (England)
- Hossein Vafaei (Iran)
- Stephen Maguire (Scotland)
- Yuan Sijun (China)
- David Gilbert (England)
- Jak Jones (Wales)
- Jimmy Robertson (England)
- Xu Si (China)
- Jackson Page (Wales)
- Tom Ford (England)
- Ryan Day (Wales)
- Anthony McGill (Scotland)
- Ben Woollaston (England)
- Stan Moody (England)
- Aaron Hill (Ireland)
- Zak Surety (England)
- Matthew Selt (England)
- Luca Brecel (Belgium)
- Daniel Wells (Wales)
- Noppon Saengkham (Thailand)
- He Guoqiang (China)
- Chang Bingyu (China)
- Matthew Stevens (Wales)
- Long Zehuang (China)
- Michael Holt (England)
- Martin O’Donnell (England)
- Oliver Lines (England)
- Ricky Walden (England)
- Scott Donaldson (Scotland)
- Robbie Williams (England)
- Fan Zhengyi (China)
- Liu Hongyu (China)
- Ishpreet Singh Chadha (India)
- David Lilley (England)
- Lyu Haotian (China)
- Ben Mertens (Belgium)
- Jamie Jones (Wales)
- Jordan Brown (Northern Ireland)
Two-year tour card holders (2025/26 and 2026/27)
- Jiang Jun (China)
- Liam Pullen (England)
- Louis Heathcote (England)
- Liam Highfield (England)
- Marco Fu (Hong Kong)
- Sam Craigie (England)
- Iulian Boiko (Ukraine)
- Dylan Emery (Wales)
- Steven Hallworth (England)
- David Grace (England)
- Gao Yang (China)
- Ian Burns (England)
- Michal Szubarczyk (Poland)
- Lan Yuhao (China)
- Yao Pengcheng (China)
- Xu Yichen (China)
- Zhao Hanyang (China)
- Reanne Evans (England)
- Liu Wenwei (China)
- Ross Muir (Scotland)
- Mateusz Baranowski (Poland)
- Leone Crowley (Ireland)
- Liam Graham (Scotland)
- Connor Benzey (England)
- Alexander Ursenbacher (Switzerland)
- Fergal Quinn (Northern Ireland)
- Chatchapong Nasa (Thailand)
- Oliver Brown (England)
- Florian Nuessle (Austria)
- Jimmy White (England)
- Ng On Yee (Hong Kong)
- Sahil Nayyar (Canada)
- Mahmoud El Hareedy (Egypt)
Top four from the 2025/26 one-year ranking list
- Alfie Burden (England)
- Antoni Kowalski (Poland)
- Julien Leclercq (Belgium)
- Artemijs Zizins (Latvia)
Q School
- Cheung Ka Wai (Hong Kong)
- Phil O’Kane (England)
- Sean O’Sullivan (England)
- Liam Davies (Wales)
- Stuart Carrington (England)
- Mitchell Mann (England)
- Andrew Higginson (England)
- Gong Chenzhi (China)
Asia-Oceania Q School
- Deng Haohui (China)
- Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon (Thailand)
- Huang Jiahao (China)
- Liu Yang (China)
WPBSA Q Tour
- Jamie Clarke (Wales)
- Ashley Carty (England)
- Ashley Hugill (England)
- Craig Steadman (England)
WSF Champion
- Hammad Miah (England)
WSF Under-18 Champion
- Michael Larkov (Ukraine)
World Women’s Snooker qualifiers
- Panchaya Channoi (Thailand)
- Bai Yulu (China)
EBSA European champions
- Anton Kazakov (Ukraine)
- Oliver Sykes (England)
Asia-Pacific champion
- Paul Norris (England)
Pan-American champion
- Igor Figueiredo (Brazil)
African champion
- TBC
CBSA China Tour
- Wang Xinbo (China)
- Luo Zetao (China)
Featured photo credit: WST
128 is quite a few, considering a typical ranking event only has a main draw of 32.
As the article on the China Open shows, if you rarely make it past qualifying, you’re not going to earn much prize money — and if you rarely make it into the main draw of ranking events, sponsors won’t have much interest in you either.
Most sports have tiered events or tiered leagues.
For example, the BWF (Badminton World Federation) has tournaments at different levels: 1000, 750, 500, and 300 are the main levels, with 1000 having the most prize money, 300 the least.
As expected, unless injured, the better players contest the 1000 and 750 events — they will also play a selection of the 500 events, leaving slots in the 32 draw open for lower-ranked players — it is very unusual to see top players in a 300 event.
So the 500 and 300 events seem intended to give lower-ranked players a chance to advance further in an official event, which would be a psychological boost, as well as earn more money.
WST ought to consider staging a mix of higher and lower tier events throughout the season.
Perhaps this format could include a path into the main draw of the next higher tier event for players who did well in the most recent lower tier event.
>a typical ranking event only has a main draw of 32
Now that I said that, I’m not sure if it’s true or not.
I know that two of the three triple crown events (UK Championship and World Championship) both use the format where the top 16 are seeded and exempt from qualifying, leaving only 16 spots in the draw — the other 112 players must compete in qualifying for these 16 spots in order to get into the main draw of 32.
But I’m not sure if a typical ranking event uses the same format.
Anyway, the point is that lower-ranked players could benefit from a tiered format for WST events.
Oh dear, another year of having to watch Higgins. His determination, against players I want to win, is positively painful. He never gives up. I’m sure that he would return to the table at 60 points behind with only the pink and black on the table. Isn’t it time for him to retire.
Greetings, I have become a recent fan of snooker and although I don’t play myself, I have enjoyed watching the game. It is my understanding that a player is ranked by how much money he/she has won during the course of a season. I am curious though if that is the best way to judge a player’s strength. The game of chess comes to mind with the way the players are ranked.
Chess player strength is ranked numerically using the Elo rating system. A player’s score increases when they win, and decreases when they lose. Points gained or lost depend on the difference between the players’ ratings and the game’s outcome
It seems to me that a player could win a couple of lucrative payout tournaments which would produce a higher ranking than another player with the same number of wins, but lower earnings resulting in a lower rank.
Thoughts?
That is good Kevin. I myself am rather new to snooker and the ranking system is all about winning consecutive matches to earn a higher ranking/payout. The fact is the top 20 players pretty much share a 67 win percentage. Therefore the only difference is the ability to reach higher consecutive matches. The only other factor I can think of is the purse of the tournaments.
The Saudis did a number on the ranking system when they had 500,0000 pounds to win equivalent to basically 5 winning tournaments but that ranking gimmick is gone.
Now, the real major that always was and is, is the World Snooker Championships which carries the highest prize money.
Welcome aboard my friend.